#because it would've been too disproportionally detailed

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Thank you so much for the costs/benefits analysis, I agree with most of it and would like to add the benefits of the additional Pleasing sales (and the other brands they were peddling, like eliou) and free promo for MP. A lot of middle aged women and/or mothers also might feel better about Harry now (and buy his stuff), a huge prospective customer segment. And also the networking his team has made through Olivia, might come in handy, even if he quits film.

About the costs: Not sure the queerbaiting allegations are a bother, we might see them disproportionally. And it's hard to link the fact that there won't be an Oscar in Harry's future to the fake rs directly, it might rather be his airy attitude towards the movie business or...ehm...his acting. He's far from being an unbookable actor, but his fandom is a risk, which paid off for MP big time. All in all nobody can't say if Holivia got more or less butts in seats than it would've gotten otherwise.

Costs for Harry personally might be a decline in mental health due to the pressure he's been under for a long time from many different parties, like his label, his fans, witnessing the horrific misogyny and feeling responsible, maybe Olivia's side, maybe his loved ones (who might hate to see him troubled, or have to be a part of it, or hate stunts in general). I know that Harry is the best judge of what causes him pain, but with Holivia I'd say the chances that it didn't are very very low.

Another fickle thing is the loyalty of longtime, hardcore fans with staying power (and $$$). Right now I feel it's not a problem because of the perfect 'monster' Olivia was (obviously she isn't) and the gains in less engaged fans. But will the latter stay or move on in two years? The financial gain will still be much higher than the ~7% of highly invested fans who left (they did free promo for MP instead : )

Personally, I'd love love love to know where Harry's red line is, the thing he'd consider too high a cost...Anyway, sorry for spaming you with my thoughts, I always love to read yours, there is nobody else like you in fandom (heart emoji)

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Thanks for your thoughts anon. I absolutely agree that the advantage of going next level in his career is much wider than just the album an include things like Pleasing. With acting it's not so much that I think the fake relationship has stopped it from an Oscar, but it has contributed to their being lots of think pieces about how bad he is at acting.

I'm not sure where your approximately seven per cent of hard core fans left because of Holivia figure comes from. I would be very sceptical myself. There's always some sort of turnover of hardcore fans.

I like the way you discuss Harry's mental health I have found that discussions of the impact of the closet on Harry's mental health within fandom have a tendency to focus on things that cause fans distress (and are often part of the justification for that misogyny) an show no curiosity about Harry. I've always thought that there's no particular reason to assume that pretending to date people was the most damaging part of the closet - it could be difficult, but it might not be.

But I recently listened to the podcast with the pap who took the photos of Harry and Olivia at Jeff's wedding (episode 142). And there's one detail that I hadn't been able to stop thinking of. The pap talked about how Harry is known for really hating having his picture taken (he emphasised this a lot), but on this occasion Harry had a drink and was relaxed. I immediately thought of Michael Grandage's comments about the ease with which Harry played Tom drunk. That has really stuck with me.

Obviously there's a cost to being closeted in his life and also to being this famous, but we don't know how it manifests itself.

[the-sky-lights-up-with-you]

Extremely aggressively microwaving Ichika Hoshino with my mind. I've never had a character I'm this confused about my relation towards. It's a bit of a feat in my mind that, regarding the character people probably think is boring, I don't know whether I like her, love her, kin her, want to be her, or am her. I can understand wanting to be her but I don't fully understand kinning/"be"ing her because her deal is that her friend group was crumbling but she took initiative and used the power of talking things out to get things back together and now she kisses all of them daily while my deal is that my friend groups crumble and I TRY to take initiative and use the power of talking things out but ultimately I'm too cringefail + too toxic as it stands + too mentally ill so it falls through every time.

Ichika's course is ostensibly "what the good ending for me would've been every single time if I had a better personality and better luck" rather than "something I think is similar to my actual experiences" yet every time I see her I make autistic squeals and tear up and think "OH MY GOD IT'S ME". I don't even remember ever putting much thought into anything about Ichika, let alone relating to her much, but I literally can't look at images of her without losing my mind over her and L/n all of a sudden. My guess is that, with the help of tons of things I THOUGHT weren't affecting me whatsoever but might subconsciously be stressors, I am on the path to "being" her in a "introjecting traits or details my head thinks will help me solve future issues like these, mend the current issues, and process/overcome/reframe things that have already happened" way.

I CAN'T relate to Ichika as she's everything I'm not, but contrary to my initial expectations, that's probably exactly what's up. All our life, friendships would fall apart by the seams and despite our (especially my) attempts to make amends nothing would truly stay together. It's kind of like there's a puzzle piece I've been missing all this time and I subconsciously/unconsciously believe myself to have finally found it within the story of Ichika. It's quite silly to me, but I think it's starting to make me feel ever so slightly more whole and less directionless. It admittedly motivates me more to get better than anything else does. So I guess I friendless-behavior cringefail'd my way backwards into becoming Ichika or something.

As an addendum, being a fan of Ichika is really funny. I think Leo/need line distribution is as much of a shitpost as the next person does, but when I see Ichika get a disproportionate amount of lines to sing/songs starring her/covers as she usually does I just think "wow! women are winning" rather than be any caliber of upset about it.

[time-slink]

that grian drawing you made....!!. in my brain, rent free. I am ,,, SO serious about this. the baggy black pants. the red sweater around the waist.. muscle BULK. the floofy hair. the skin-colored sclera to give the illusion of his socket eyes.(!() STRONGK SHOULDERS.. THE ARM HAIR THE ARM HAIR THE A R M HAIRER L HEELLO??? ? the only thing keeping me from going completely insane is that he doesnt have the forearm veins BUT YEAH i love He <3. SO much. like i have nothing against twink baby-face femboy grian likers but hoooOOLY SHIT you know how to draw a Man,, not even like the ultra sexified anime boy kind of man. I mean like. I'm cis as hell but that is what i would want to look like if i was a guy. The perfect balance of intimidating and friendly and cheeky and cutesy and ,,, basically he looks like everything i could ever want in a grian design ok god bless <3

this is kinda on me but i did NOT expect the sheer volume of people hitting on my grian design in the tags its really funny to me,, glad yall enjoy haha kinda funny note: his sclera aren't intended to be skin colored, he sorta just doesn't have any in the way i draw him—but i guess its up to interpretation! thats kinda cool now that i look at it again